Development of high temperature electrodeposited LIGA MEMS materials

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An international multidisciplinary research team from Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe (FZK, Germany) and John Hopkins University (JHU, USA) will undertake a collaborative programm to develop novel electrodeposited LIGA materials for high temperature MEMS applications. The technological motivation is derived from a need to expand the reliability and funcionality of current MEMS materials. Current LIGA processing generally results in electrodeposited nickel structures with high aspect ratios and an attractive balance of room temperature properties, but thermal exposure has been shown to result in microstructural instabilities and significant property degradation, which currently limit the use of LIGA structures in elevated temperature MEMS applications, e.g. as molds, heat exchangers, thermal actuators, and power generation devices. Efforts to develop co-deposited alloys, dispersion strengthened composites and high temperature Ni-base superalloys are planned. Judicious control and optimisation of processing parameters will be performed and related to the resultant microstructure and attendant mechanical properties. Processing issues related to the fabrication of micron-sized structures will be addressed at FZK, and novel elevated temperature microsample testing techniques, recently developed at JHU, will be employed to measure the full-range of mechanical properties of these new materials. Close collaboration between the two institutions will be required to fulfill the scientific mission of the proposal, and integrated exchanges of graduate students and senior researcher scientists will create the vehicle for this collaboration and provide a unique educational experience for the students.